With the miniaturization and higher packing density of semiconductor devices, the photolithography apparatus is required to have higher accuracy. However, in realizing fine processing at several ten nanometers or less, photolithography technology reaches the resolution limit. Hence, nanoimprint is drawing attention as one of the next-generation fine processing technologies.
In nanoimprint, for instance, liquid droplets of resist (hereinafter, resist drops) are dropped on a foundation. A template having a protrusion-depression pattern is pressed to the resist drops. Thus, a resist layer having a protrusion-depression pattern is formed between the template and the foundation.
However, in general, the pattern density of the template is not uniform. Furthermore, the resist is typically an organic material, and hence volatile. Thus, on the foundation, local deficiency and excess of resist drops may occur, or unevenness may occur in the residual layer thickness of the resist. Hence, control is needed to prevent deficiency and excess of resist drops depending on the pattern shape of the template and the volatilization amount of the resist.
Thus, the problem is how to properly arrange resist drops on the foundation before performing nanoimprint. By proper arrangement of resist drops, fine processing with high accuracy can be realized.